The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-10-07
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
New-Fangled Beliefs VI. The Re-
Ngion Of the Bible.



Rev. T. Dewitt Talmags. IN . recent
sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, took
for his subject, "A Straight Up-and-Dowr
Religion" His text WAS
And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what
seest thou! and I said, A plumb nne.-Amoa
VII, g.
DR.. Tabnage said: The sold masonry Of
the world has to me fascination. Wall
about some Of the triumphal arches and
the eathedrals, four hundred or six hun.
dred years old, and sec them stand Al
erect as whom they were builded, wal:s Of
great height for centuries, not bending q
quarter Of an inch in this way or that
So greatly honored were the masons who
builded these walls that they were free
from taxation and called free" masons
The trowel gets most of the credit fol
these buildings, and its clear ringing on
stone and brick has sounded across the
ages. But there is another implement OF
just as much importance as the trowel
and my text recognizes it. Britklayers
and stonemasons and carpenters, In the
building of walls, use an instrument made
of a cord, at the end of which q lump OF
lead is fastened. They drop it ovel
the side Of the wall, and, a
the plummet naturally seeks the center OF
gravity in the earth, the workman dis
covers where the wall recedes and where il
bulges out, and just what is the perpen'
dicular. Our text represents God as stand
ing on the wall Of character, which the
Israelites had built, and in that way
measuring it.
And the Lord said unto me, Amos whAt
fho,, nj c,;I al, h linz
What the world wants is straight up
and-down religion. Much of the socalled
piety of the day bends this way and that
to suit the times. It il horizontal with q
low state of sentiment and morals. We
have all been building wall of character,
and it is glaringly imperfect, and needs
reconstruction. How shall it be brought
into the perpendicular: Only by the
divine measurement.
And the Lord said to me, Amos, what seest
thoui and said, A plumb line.
The whole tendency Of the times is te
make Us act by the standard Of what
others do. II they play cards, we play
cards. II they dance, We dance. II they
read certain styles of books, we read them.
We throw over the wall Of our character
the tangled plumb line Of other lives, and
reject the infallible test which Amos saw
The question for me should not be what
you think is right, but what God thinks is
right. This perpetual reference to the be.
havior OF others, as though it decided any
thing but human fallibility, is a mistake
as wide as the world. There are ten thou.
sand plumb lines in use, but only one is
true and exact, and that is the line OF
Gods eternal right. There is a mighty
attempt being made to reconstruct and fix
up the Ten Commandments. To many
they seem too rigid. The tower Of Pisa
leans over about thirteen feet from the
perpendicular, and people go thousands OF
miles to see it's graceful inclination, and
by extra braces and various archi-
tectural contrivances it is kept lean.
ing from century to century. Why
not have the ten granite blocks of Sinai
set little aslant? Why not heve the pill
lar of truth a leaning tower? Why is
not an ellipse as good as good as square?
Why is not an oblique Us good as
straight up and down? My friends, we
must have q standard: shall it be Gods OF
mans?
The divine plumb lins needs to be
thrown over all merchandise. Thousands
of years ago Solomon discovered the ten.
dency of buyers to depreciate goods. He
saw a man beating down an article lower
and lower, and saying it was not worth
the price asked, and when he had pur.
chased at the lowest point he told every
body what sharp bargain he had struck,
and how he had outwtted the merchant.
1t is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer, but
when he is gone his way, then he boasteth
Proverbs XIX, II.
SO utterly askew is society in this mat.
ter that you seldom find a seller asking
the price that he expects to get. He puts
on a higher value than he proposes to re.
ceivs, knowing that he will have to drop.
And if he wants fifty, he asks seventy.
FIVE. And if he wants two thousand he
asks two thousand five hundred.
at is naught," saith the buyer. 1.-THE
fabric is detective; the style of goods is
poor; can get elsewhere better article
at smaller price. It is out of fashion; il
is damaged; it will fade; it will not wear
WE'LL" After a while, the merchant from
overpersuasion, or from tho desire to dis.
pose Of that particular stock of goods,
says: "Well, take it at your own price,
and the purchaser goes home with light
step, and coils into his private Office his
confidential friends, and chuckles while he
tells how that for half price he got the
goods. In other words, he lies and was
proud of it.
Nothing would make times as good, and
the earning Of q livelihood so easy, As the
universal adoption of the law of right.
Suspicion strikes through all barSain-mak-
ing. Men who sell know not whether
they will ever get the money. Purchasers
know not whether the goods shipped will
he according to the sample. And what
with the large number of clerks who are
making false entries and then abscondine
to Canada, and the explosion Of firms
that fail for millions of dollars, honest
men are at their wits end to make q liv'
ing. He who stands up amid all the
pressure and does right 10 accomplishing
something toward the establishment of q
high commercial prosperity. have deeI
sympathy for the laboring classes who
toll with hand and foot. But We must not
forget the business men who, without any
complaint or hammered procession through
the street, are enduring . stress OF cir.
cumstances terrific. Tho fortunate peo-
pie to-day are those who are receiving
daily wages on regular salaries. And the
men most to be pitied are those who con-
duct a business while prices are falling,
and >et try to pay their clerks and ON.
ployes, and are in such fearful straits that
they would quit business tomorrow If it
were not for the wreck and ruin of others.
When people tell me at what ruinously
low price they purchased an article it
gives me more dismay than satisfaction.
know it means the bankruptcy and defal-
cation of men in many departments. The
men who toll with the brain need full as
much sympathy as those who toll with the
hand. All business life is struck through
with suspicion, and panics are only the
result of want of confidence.
The pressure to do wrong Is all the
stronger from the fact that in our day the